The APHI Laboratory

Mission
From the Director
Institute Programs
Collaborators
APHI Laboratory

APHI Laboratory
College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
1681 Campus Delivery
Fort Collins, Colorado  80523-1681
970-491-2379/2025

Joni Triantis
Laboratory Coordinator
970-491-2078
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Laboratory History

The use of veterinary epidemiological tools as scientifically-based means for improving animal population health at state, national, and global levels was begun under CVEADSS and has continued under the APHI.  This research focus incorporated the development and refinement of surveillance and survey systems that incorporated disease diagnostic techniques.  In the interest of obtaining reliable and valid data for use in analysis, a laboratory was established.  The direction of early laboratory activities was development of new diagnostic techniques and refinement of existing techniques.

With the consolidation of the roles of the CVEADSS and CEIIAD within the APHI, the existing CVEADSS laboratory was renamed and its mission was refined.  The refined mission of the Animal Population Health Institute Laboratory included the support and enhancement of research activities for diagnosing and preventing infectious animal diseases. The laboratory is not a basic science research unit. Rather, it is an applied research laboratory that develops or modifies existing methodologies before the tests undergo extensive use and validation in the field. Also, APHI faculty, who are primarily field-based researchers utilize the APHI Laboratory and its research associates to develop their ideas into field tests. As a result, the research associates' skills are optimized by developing diagnostic tests for different research needs. The training and support of graduate students associated with APHI remains an essential component of the laboratory activities. The APHI Laboratory is one of the various vehicles used by APHI researchers to understand the epidemiology of infectious animal diseases for the purpose of prevention.

New Initiatives

Currently, the APHI Laboratory is involved with a project entitled Prion Degradation Mechanisms in Natural Microbial Systems.  Environmental contamination by prions is an emerging problem in EPA Region 8. The relevant settings include concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) using mortality composting and wastewater treatment facilities receiving waste from prion-contaminated premises.  Disposal of prion-contaminated animal waste is daunting because of the high degree of resistance of the agent to conventional decontamination procedures.  This project will examine the possibility that certain common microbial degradation systems have sufficient proteolytic activity to degrade prion protein.  The laboratory research activities include  the evaluation of protein-rich sample preparations from animal mortality composting operations and waste water treatment systems for total protein concentration, total protease activity, and ability to degrade prion protein in a brain digestion/detection system.   

Laboratory Facilities

The APHI laboratory, housed in the Environmental Health Building on the main campus of Colorado State University, consists of five separate laboratory rooms: the main lab, the gel area, the clean lab, the prion room, and the culture lab.  Within the main lab, general laboratory work is performed, which includes preparing and analyzing samples, making reagents and running immunoassays.  The gel area is the locale for performing polymerase chain reaction ( PCR) thermal cycling and electrophoresis, gel analysis, and PCR product and plasmid purification.  Special hoods are located within the clean lab in order to complete tissue culture, PCR preparation, and RNA work.  All work related to study of prion diseases is performed within the prion room, which houses dedicated equipment and two biosafety cabinets.  Finally, the culture lab is home for activities requiring the use biosafety cabinets, such as viral infection of cultures and preparation of field samples for analysis.

The laboratory is well-equipped and staffed to provide support for on-going, applied research activities within the APHI.